"American Gangster" is one of those movies that captures your eye and holds your attention -- at least for the first hour or so. Based on the true story of a 1970s New York drug lord, director Ridley Scott creates yet another powerful film, this time about an era riddled with heroin, violence and police corruption. It depicts the rise to power of an unbeknownst Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), the former driver and bodyguard of black mobster Bumpy Johnson, who is relentlessly pursued by Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), an honest Jersey cop aching to bring him down.
The film is packed with the soul and funk of the 1970s as well as the dark pursuit of the American Dream. Lucas rises from being a driver and bodyguard of a notorious Harlem kingpin to becoming one himself -- but much more. Gangsters and crooked cops alike were trying to get their piece of what heroin trafficking proved to be a cash cow, often threatening and bribing one another.
Washington emits the cool and collected aura of a powerfully dangerous man, giving profound meaning to the proverb "speak softly and carry a big stick." Both Washington and Crowe deliver extraordinary performances, engaging their characters to one another in a manner reminiscent to that between Jean Valjean and Javert.
However, the problem begins with the moment someone stretches his neck and starts readjusting his position on his seat: the movie is 157-minutes long. Not only that, but it carries unnecessary plot tangents, such as Robert's child-custody battle with his annoying wife, spends too much onscreen time focusing on Roberts's story when the more powerful and captivating one is Lucas's, and tries but fails in competition with classics like "The Sopranos" and "The Godfather."
The biggest let-down I had with this movie is that it didn't deliver. It started with a bang -- literally -- of some guy bounded, set on fire and shot multiple times; but it faded out with a series of soft endings and post-event summations. Perhaps it's the fact that real stories sometimes are not as interesting as fabricated ones -- Lucas no longer appears as the daunting gangster he once was but almost as a weakling antithetical to everything he represented by shamelessly cooperating with cops for leniency. Not that I'm against that, although I'm amused to think that that behavior ironically justifies the title "American Gangster."
